The Spirit also functions to speak in prophesying. First Timothy 4:1 says, “The Spirit says expressly that in later times some will depart from the faith.” This verse does not mean that the Spirit speaks directly without some human instrument or vessel. The Spirit speaks through the believers’ prophesying. When the believers prophesy, the Spirit speaks in their prophesying.
The Spirit indwells us and guards the deposit of truth within us (2 Tim. 1:14). The Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:16). Hence, to guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit requires us to exercise our spirit.
Titus 3:5 speaks of the renewing of the Holy Spirit. We are receiving the new supply of the Spirit to renew us metabolically. The Holy Spirit is the divine person, washing and renewing us in the divine element to make us a new creation with the divine nature to be heirs of God in His eternal life, inheriting all the riches of the Triune God. The Spirit began to renew us from our regeneration and is renewing us continuously every day and all day to make us a new creation with the divine life.
Hebrews 3:7 and 8 say, “Wherefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of trial in the wilderness.” These verses show that the Spirit also has the function of exhorting, or warning.
Hebrews 6:4 says that we are partakers of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is a portion for us to enjoy, to partake of. At the time of our salvation, we did not partake of the Spirit once for all. This partaking of the Spirit is going on every day because the very Spirit, of whom we partake, is within us for our enjoyment.
In Hebrews 9:6-8, Paul speaks of the type of the tabernacle with the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Through this type the Spirit speaks something concerning the New Testament. The Spirit shows us something of the New Testament by the Old Testament types.
Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God. This shows that the Spirit was the means through which Christ offered Himself to God.
The Spirit testifies the Lord’s word. Hebrews 10:15-17 shows how the Spirit speaks something to testify what the Lord has spoken already in the Bible. The Bible is the written Word. When we read it, the living Spirit within us testifies to what is written in the Bible.
Hebrews 10:29c refers to the Spirit of grace. This means that God’s grace is embodied in the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, you have God’s grace. If you receive the Spirit, you receive grace.
James 4:4 and 5 show that the Spirit envies the believers for God. God and Christ are our Husband (Isa. 54:5; 2 Cor. 11:2). We should be chaste and love Him alone with our entire being (Mark 12:30). If our heart is divided by loving the world, we become adulteresses. Our God is a jealous God, and His Spirit is jealous over us with a jealousy of God (2 Cor. 11:2).
The Spirit has the function of sanctifying the sinners for believing in Christ. In 1 Peter 1:2 the sanctifying of the Spirit is not concerning those who are already believers but concerning the sinners who are going to be believers. This is the sanctification of the Spirit before our believing in Christ. The Holy Spirit’s sanctification has different steps. The first step is before our repentance and believing, and the second step is after our believing to sanctify us positionally.
The woman’s seeking of the lost coin in Luke 15 typifies the Spirit’s seeking of the sinner (vv. 8-10). The woman lights a lamp and sweeps the house to find the lost coin. This is the Spirit’s work to enlighten and expose the sinner’s position and condition that he may repent and return to the Father, as the prodigal son did (vv. 17-20). (This is the first step of the Holy Spirit’s sanctification.) Once he returns to the Father and receives Christ, the Spirit then takes another step to sanctify him dispositionally.